Gov. Brown’s big transportation package faces staunch opposition

Environmentalists and health advocates oppose a provision in the bill that gives a break on pollution rules to the trucking industry.

Environmentalists and health advocates oppose a provision in the...

SACRAMENTO — The Democratic plan to fix California’s roads faces major opposition from environmental and health advocates who are furious about a provision in the legislation that they say would give the trucking industry a significant break from pollution regulations.

Intense lobbying of moderate Democrats in recent days casts doubt on whether Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democratic leaders who unveiled SB1 last week will secure the two-thirds majority votes needed in each house to pass the bill. The bill would raise $52 billion over 10 years with new taxes and fees to repair the state’s bridges and roads, and leaders set a Thursday deadline to get the legislation passed.

“This is a giveaway to the trucking industry and should be taken out,” Adrian Martinez, staff attorney at Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization, said about the provision. “This was thrust on people at the last minute. I’d be surprised if someone was arguing this is good for our air, good for our communities.”

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Semi-trailer trucks entering and leaving the Port of Oakland, Ca. on Tues. April 4, 2017.

Semi-trailer trucks entering and leaving the Port of Oakland, Ca. on Tues. April 4, 2017.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Semi-trailer trucks line up to unload their goods at the Port of Oakland, Ca. on Tues. April 4, 2017.

Semi-trailer trucks line up to unload their goods at the Port of Oakland, Ca. on Tues. April 4, 2017.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Gov. Brown’s big transportation package faces staunch opposition

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Brown and legislative leaders imposed a Thursday deadline because they want the vote taken before lawmakers return to their districts for the weeklong spring break. That’s when legislators are more likely to hear from voters about the unpopular gas tax and higher vehicle registration fees that are part of SB1.

The governor told Democrats he wasn’t sure the timing would ever be better to create a much-needed revenue source for improving the state’s crumbling roads. He urged Democrats not to “blow it.”

“This is needed,” Brown told lawmakers at a committee hearing Monday, where the bill passed on a party line vote. “That’s my point here, you can’t escape the need.”

The bill was unveiled only last week, although lawmakers have been talking for two years about how to pay for the state’s estimated $59 billion backlog in road and bridge maintenance and repairs.

While environmental and health groups say they agree that the state needs to take action on roads, they do not agree with the provision in the bill they believe lawmakers added to win votes from lawmakers aligned with the trucking industry. The provision prohibits the state from requiring truckers to upgrade their trucks within the first 13 years on the road or before they reach 800,000 miles as part of antipollution regulations. Commercial trucking is a major source of air pollution, particularly in communities near ports, freeways or warehouses.

The California Trucking Association, a trucking industry group, is supporting the bill because it would ease clean air regulations even though it raises diesel taxes. The trucking association said that provision to ease regulations will “provide financial certainty to the family-owned businesses that have purchased the newest, cleanest engines.”

But agriculture groups, such as the California Farm Bureau Federation, are appealing to moderate Democrats to oppose the transportation bill, saying it will hurt farmers who will pay more to transport their food throughout the state.

“They need to drop this notion that everything needs to be done by Thursday,” said Sierra Club California Director Kathryn Phillips, who opposes the bill because of the trucking provision. “It doesn’t make sense to establish an artificial deadline for something this big and this important.”

Yet, even if lawmakers wanted to remove the provision, they couldn’t do so before a vote on Thursday. Voters passed a law in November that requires the Legislature to have a bill in print for at least 72 hours before it is voted on. The last amendments to the bill were done in the mid-afternoon on Monday and the vote cannot be taken until 72 hours later on Thursday.

Backers of Proposition 54, the transparency ballot measure, are keeping an eye on the Legislature this week as the transportation bill becomes the first major test of the new law.

Meanwhile, the lobbying on both sides of the bill is intensifying. The California Tomato Growers Association, Western Growers’ Association, California Cattlemen’s Association, California Farm Bureau Federation and many other agricultural groups sent a letter to lawmakers urging them to oppose the bill. The groups said SB1 “will place an enormous burden on family farmers and ranchers” due to the increase in diesel fuel costs.

Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and a Brown appointee to the California Transportation Commission, was among those visiting dozens of lawmakers’ offices on Tuesday urging their support for the bill, which he said faces a “steep hill.”

Brown has been pitching SB1 in the districts of reluctant lawmakers — including Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, and Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside. Sources said Glazer wants the bill amended to include a provision prohibiting BART strikes. Glazer declined to comment through a spokesman.

Brown’s office said the governor will join legislative leaders, labor and business leaders on the steps of the state Capitol on Wednesday to rally support for the bill.

“We will continue to try to build bridges and move forward with something that advances the interest of California,” Guardino said. “Doing nothing is going to hurt our economy and quality of life.”

SB1 by Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, would raise $5.2 billion a year for 10 years by increasing the vehicle registration fee by $25 to $175 depending on the value of the vehicle, hiking gas and diesel taxes, and creating a $100 annual fee on zero-emission vehicles beginning in 2020. Under the bill, the state’s gas excise tax, which is currently 18 cents, would increase by 12 cents per gallon to 30 cents.

Additionally, the excise tax on diesel fuel, which is used by the commercial trucking industry, would increase by 20 cents a gallon to 36 cents. The diesel sales tax also would rise to 5.75 percent from the current 1.75 percent.

An accompanying constitutional amendment would require that the money generated from the taxes and fees would be spent on transportation projects, something Brown said should give lawmakers — and their constituents — some reassurance.